Movie Review: Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007)

Many people don’t know of this great American author called Philip K. Dick. He was a short story writer and wrote quite a few pieces, that eventually were the source of great movies like Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report, etc. All these movies are more than just your advance sci-fi or fast forwarded a few years type of movie. These are extremely iconic and cult movies, conveying a deeper message than we realize/comprehend. The movie is based on Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“
I had not seen Blade Runner – until perhaps 1984/85, did not understand it much then. Only when I saw it again during my college days, did I really enjoy the film. 25 Years after original came out, Director Ridley Scott (Wiki – IMDB) came out with the Director’s cut, which he aptly titled “Blade Runner: The Final Cut”.

The film is set in 2019 (not far away eh!) in where else but Los Angeles, where genetically engineered organic robots called replicants that are visually indistinguishable from adult humans are manufactured by the all-powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as other mega manufacturers around the world.

Replicant are NOT allowed on Earth. They are banned. Most of the replicants are used for dangerous, laborious or leisure work off Earth – called “off-world colonies”

Replicants who defy the ban of them being on Earth are hunted down and ‘retired’ by a special forces group called “Blade Runners”.

The plot of the movie is for a burnt-out expert blade runner “Rick Deckard” who agrees to take on one more assignment to see and retire the four replicants who are on Earth – these Nexus-6 models are very advanced but have only a 4 year lifespan and hence they are on Earth to try to expand their lifespan.

Harrison Ford (Wiki – IMDB) plays the role of Deckard – the blade runner. It is a very young Harrison Ford with amazing acting. Assisting Deckard from the Tyrell Corporation is Tyrell’s assistant Rachael (played by Sean Young – Wiki – IMDB). Rachael is an experimental replicant who believes she is human. Rachael’s childhood memories are those of Tyrell’s niece.

Deckard and Rachael form a relationship during the movie (wouldn’t be any good to have a movie where there is indistinguishable love between a human and a replicant).

Roy Batty is the one of the four bad-ass replicants on the loose on Earth that the blade runner has to catch. Played by Rutger Hauer (Wiki – IMDB), he is a cold, Aryan, flawless bad-ass replicant.

Pris is Batty’s partner – she is also a replicant – a pleasure model – which is done to show the human side of the replicants and their need for pleasure, etc. Pris is played out by again a very young Daryl Hannah (Wiki – IMDB).

The movie is a great iconic movie – imagine writing a book like this in the 60s and making a movie out of it – in 1992 it still captures our imagination to date.

About Faisal Khan

Faisal Khan is a banking / payments consultant specializing in cross-border payment system and a digital money evangelist. He is the co-host of Around The Coin, a weekly podcast on Payments & Fintech with over 18,000+ listeners. Mr. Khan is a talent scout for Series A & B financing for various fintech VCs/funds. He is also a frequent contributor to popular Q&A site Quora where he has been a Quora 5 consecutive years. His official website is at https://faisalkhan.com